One Month In in Trichotomy

Location, Location, Location

It’s been a month and two days since we moved to the new place. A lot of our furniture (dining table, sofas, recliners, big-arse TV) are still back at the old place, but what I need is here. I am quite happy with the convenience of the place; it’s walkable to the train station, bank, restaurants and, technically, a grocery store. There’s no need to coordinate with La Professeure on our schedules since she doesn’t need to drive me to or from the station now. Her commute is only a 10 minutes drive on local roads.

We still see zillow recommending houses for us to see for the last 3 months since we’d gone into contract. Both La Professeure and I have independently looked at those listings, and decided that they are not as desirable as the house we have now. So, no buyers remorse still.

We are also enjoying the home automation. The previous homeowner left us with a lot of smart home devices and I’ve set it up for us. It’s nice to walk into a room and just go “computer, lights on” and the light will turn on. Or I can ask the smart screen to “show what’s in the basement” and we can see what the rabbit is up to. Makes me feel like I was in Star Trek. I don’t think I have touched a light switch to an automated light since moving in. I did notice La Professerue was still using the wall switches till recently, but when I installed the automation app on her phone, she took to it immediately.

The house does not have a basement, but has many nooks to put stuff, so our rarely-used things will be scattered. So I’ve been trying to get an inventory of our household items. It’s an uphill battle since most things are not set up yet. Our living and dining room have been empty except for the piano since our sofa and dining room table are still at the old place. But we’ve been functioning fine for a month now.

Makes me wonder if we really need a dining or living room.

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Back stop of the back stop

The Ukranian Soprano had asked to perform in next week’s recital. She was going to sing An die Musik, Summertime, and the Lake flower duet with Maria de Buenos Aires. She had a few months to find a pianist, but couldn’t, so when all else failed, asked me. I’m surprised I’d never played An die Musik before - I don’t even have the sheet music - even though I could have probably played it by ear because I’ve heard it so many times now.

But I’m not sure if I can now, since the weather has been changing and I caught a cold. I felt a scratch throat on Tuesday, stayed home Wednesday, and couldn’t work Thursday or Friday. But now I’m basically fine, just stuffed up, and having lost my voice.

I did not realize that as an organiser I was also going to be the back-stop accompanist.

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A second job

With a larger house also comes more maintenance tasks. The previous owner left a spreadsheet of tasks that they do, together with contact information on home service company, material, and contractor that they use to do them, and we can just follow their routines. That makes it so much easier to follow.

They are very organised - she is a retired school teacher and he is a financial company’s project manager of sorts. They are also very kind - sometimes they would pop by and drop off some supplies they didn’t need in their new house or pick up some things they’d left here or stuff we don’t need in our house. I think they also want to see this house being well-taken care of.

The buyers of our old house will inherit from two scientists, so I’m sure they won’t have as good a move-in experience as us, but we aspire to be as organised as the sellers.

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